Transplant recipient on move

New Germany native Jessica Carver had a double lung transplant Dec. 13, six months after she was put on the waiting list and moved to Toronto. Above, she marks her first day back at physiotherapy after the transplant, holding hands with Carman Hamilton, who was put on the wait list a week after Carver, and is still in need of a donor. (PAMELA HAMILTON)

BRIDGEWATER — Thirty days after Jessica Carver got a new set of lungs — or blowers, as she likes to call them — she’s planning to take part in three five-kilometre runs this spring.

“I don’t see the point in being given new lungs to just sit around,” said the 33-year-old New Germany native. “I have to treat them right, and exercise helps to keep them healthy.”

She’s not running around yet, but Carver can finally walk without losing her breath. And for the first time in 2 years, she’s not connected to an oxygen tube.

Carver was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when she was six months old. She became an advocate for CF and organ donation awareness after doctors told her in 2008 that she needed a double lung transplant.

The humorous blog she created, livelaughlungs.blogspot.ca, has garnered followers around the world, and Carver said she plans to continue documenting her journey on the site and possibly by translating it into a book.

Carver has been in Ontario since June, just minutes away from Toronto General Hospital, waiting for a suitable donor. That happened Dec. 13.

“Honestly, they could not have come at a better time,” she said Saturday from the condo where she has been living.

She went to a Raptors basketball game Dec. 12.

“And I had a really bad day. I mean really bad.”

She couldn’t breathe and had to be helped out of the arena. When she went to bed that night, she didn’t think she could keep going much longer.

At 12:01 a.m., the phone rang. There was a match.

“I was really calm,” she recalled, having gone through a false alarm in October when she got extremely excited only to find out one of the lungs had pneumonia.

The eight-hour surgery began at 7 p.m.

“I was lying on the OR table thinking, ‘Is this it? Is this it?’”

Because of a breathing tube down her throat, Carver couldn’t talk when she woke up in the intensive care unit so she motioned to the nurses to ask if she really had a new set of lungs.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.

Her first memories after the surgery are of immense soreness and tightness in her chest. It was only after she pushed herself through painful exercises that she noticed how clear her breathing had become.

She had to learn to cough to help expel fluid, and a chest tube had to be reinserted into her right lung because of an air pocket, delaying her release from hospital until Jan. 4.

“Pre-transplant, you always think about about your future, but you only imagine. You can’t see it yet because you don’t know if or when it will happen.”

If things continue as is, Carver will be able to return home to Dartmouth around March 13.

She intends to get back to work as soon as she gets the green light, she said, as well as spend a lot of time visiting family, friends and strangers who have supported her in recent months.

There are so many things she wants to do, not the least of which are to play sports again with her boyfriend’s three boys, join a gym and hit the dance floor.

“But right now it’s about realizing my limitations. It takes time to be able to do things, and I have to realize that and not get disappointed.”

But Carver said she is thrilled to find she can walk a little further each day.

She just made her bed for the first time in nine months. Even then, it would take ages to do and leave her completely wiped out. This time, she had no trouble.

“I don’t ever want to take this feeling for granted. I am grateful every moment for my new lungs.”

Carver said she is also grateful to the donor and that person’s family.

“Somebody took the time to make this selfless decision and the family honoured that decision. It really is crucial that people talk about organ donation.”

Her immune system has been knocked out in an effort to prevent rejection of the new organ, which means hand sanitizer has become her best friend and she’ll stay away from crowds for a bit.

“It’s a matter of being smart, cautious. I’ve got these new lungs, but I’m not going to sit in a bubble. I have too much life to live. There’s too much fun to be had.”

When she has had time to fully digest what has happened and the impact on her life, Carver plans to sit down and write a carefully thought-out letter. She wants to thank the family that, in losing the life of a loved one, gave new life to her.